Wednesday, April 3, 2013

5 Health Benefits of Cauliflower:
1. A cup of boiled cauliflower delivers about 3.35 g of dietary fiber, which helps clean your digestive system and gets rid of unnecessary substances.
2. A diet high in cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower has been been linked to a significant reduction in the risk of cancer
3. Cauliflower provides a lot of nutrition for very few calories. A 1/2 cup of cooked cauliflower contains only 15 calories.
4. High vitamin K content, cauliflower helps to reduce inflammation. It also has omega-3 fatty acids!
5. Decrease chronic ailments such as atherosclerosis, a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. Cauliflower can help keep your blood flowing to essential organs of the body!
Reference below

After removing the green leaves and stems, use a grater to 'rice' the cauliflower. You can use a food processor, but I found that it didn't rice evenly. Once the cauliflower is grated, cook for 5 to 7 minutes in a pan or if you have one, a microwave. Place the simi-cooked cauliflower in a tea towel and sqeeze as much moisture out as possible.

Mix all ingredients for cauliflower crust in a bowl.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Once everything is mixed well, place the cauliflower dough on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. The shape is not as important as the thickness of the pizza dough: 1/4 inch or so. No need to measure it, but be sure not to press it too thin.

Cook the cauliflower crust at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Once the crust looks cooked, set it aside and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

While waiting for the pizza crust to cool, start cooking your toppings. Bake the yams or sweet potatoes for 20 minutes and saute your kale. Don't forget to remove the stems from the kale. You can cook the red onions as well or leave them raw. Up to you.

Once cauliflower pizza crust has cooled and all toppings are pre-cooked, assemble your pizza! I didn't use a sauce, but you can use pesto or tomato sauce as your base layer.

- First layer of pizza - mozzarella di bufala. I didn't want to use too much mozzarella because there is cheese in the crust.
- Next layer of pizza - thinly sliced cooked yams / sweet potato
- Last layer of pizza - saute kale and red onions

Broil the pizza for 4 to 8 minutes or until the cheese is melted. This is risky. I sometimes burn toast in the broiler. It's hit or miss. If you do not trust your broiler, bake on 450 for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Keep an eye on it!

Let it cool for about 5 minutes or more. Cut and enjoy with a fork. You will be surprised at how good the crust tastes! The crust was so good, I want to make it again and eat it plain or with a dipping sauce.